Marianna Mkrtchyan

OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs to meet with foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan on sidelines of UN General Assembly, James Warlick says

ArmInfo. The OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs plan to meet with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York later this month, US Co-chair of the OSCE MG, Ambassador James Warlick told APA on September 1.
APA quotes James Warlick as saying, "The co-chairs remain actively
engaged with the sides and plan to meet with the foreign ministers of
Azerbaijan and Armenia at the UN General Assembly in New York later
this month."

Warlick said they hope to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov and others next week in Moscow. "We look forward to discussing
the implementation of agreements reached between the presidents of
Azerbaijan and Armenia at recent summit meetings in Vienna and St.
Petersburg," he noted. The Co-chairs also plan to discuss the next
steps in the negotiations process including proposals on the table
that could lead to a comprehensive settlement, Warlick added.

Earlier Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said
the Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Ambassadors Igor Popov of the
Russian Federation, James Warlick of the United States of America,
and Pierre Andrieu of France), and Personal Representative of the
OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk will hold a
meeting in Moscow on September 8. She added that the Co-chairs are
also expected to meet with the Russian Foreign Ministry leadership.

To note, the 71st session of the UN General Assembly will be held
from 13 to 26 September in New York.

To recall, the Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia met in
Saint Petersburg on June 20 2016 at the behest of Vladimir Putin.
Reaching a settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was the
subject of discussion at the meeting, which took place behind closed
doors. Following the consultations, the presidents of Russia,
Armenia and Azerbaijan adopted a joint statement reaffirming their
commitment to normalizing the situation on the line of contact and
giving their approval to an increase in the number of OSCE observers
working in the conflict zone. The joint statement also expresses the
parties' commitment to putting in place the conditions required for
steady progress in negotiations on a political settlement to the
conflict. The presidents made a point of their regular contacts on
Karabakh and agree to continue them in such format as addition to the
efforts by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs who were invited to the
final stage of the meeting in St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev said that the investigative mechanisms at the
present stage of the settlement are irrelevant and the issue can be
discussed after "withdrawal of Armenian troops from the NKR". He also
stressed that the Office of the OSCE CiO Personal Representative can
be expanded by no more than 12-13 people. Following the meetings in
Vienna and St. Petersburg, France expressed willingness to host the
next meeting on Karabakh in August 2016, but no meeting was
organized.